Ohio set records in recent days for both COVID infections and hospitalizations, prompting the state’s governor, Mike DeWine, a Republican, to mobilize additional members of the Ohio National Guard to help at hospitals - one of several states to do so. The announcement came midweek that the 35,000-student district would begin its spring semester remotely, with Eric Gordon, the district’s CEO, citing a “dramatic increase” in the infection rate in Cleveland. In Cleveland, parents had been bracing for possible remote instruction since the day before the winter break, when the district closed 14 of its 90 schools because faculty and staff members were out sick. colleges and universities announcing a move to remote instruction for part or all of January to nearly 50.
Similar announcements came from a number of major universities across the country, from the University of California system to New York University, Syracuse, and Binghamton in New York, bringing the number of U.S. Several Chicago-area colleges announced either delayed starts or shifts to remote learning, including DePaul University, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. “But short of that, what is the logic of thinking that somehow shutting down schools is going to help this pandemic? I don’t see the logic.”Ĭhicago Teachers Union officials have criticized the district’s testing, ventilation and staffing plans, and they expressed concern about the potential for breakthrough cases among vaccinated employees. “If they shut down the restaurants, they shut down all the events, every component of the city and state, then, hey, I’m not going to put my families at risk I’m not going to force them to take their children to school,” said Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools. In Chicago, where businesses have remained open as cases have spiked to their highest levels of the pandemic, public school leaders said they planned to return to class as scheduled Monday despite concerns from the city’s powerful teachers union about safety precautions. But some districts - including public schools in Cleveland Prince George’s County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington Newark, New Jersey Mount Vernon, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey - will transition to remote learning for one week or more in January. Schools in Chicago, Washington and most other major cities have announced they also plan to reopen this week, many with increased testing regimens. The number of cases in New York continues to rise steeply, yet city school officials have vowed to keep schools open, embracing increased testing as an alternative to closing classrooms. But much about the new variant remains uncertain, and experts remain worried that hospitals might be overwhelmed. Scientists are projecting that the country’s sharp increase in cases will crest by the middle of January. She added that business has gotten far slower as case counts rise: “Tips have been stable, but head count went down drastically.” She is fully vaccinated but recently recovered from a mild case of COVID. “I’ve been working through most of the pandemic, and I hadn’t tested positive before omicron,” said Amelia Smoak, 29, who works at a restaurant and bar in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood. “They don’t give you a playbook at Harvard Business School on the pandemic,” said Yancey Spruill, CEO of the tech company DigitalOcean, which told its staff it will allow remote work indefinitely.Īcross the country, workers were steeling themselves for months of disruptions to come. Children younger than 5 are still not eligible for them.įor business leaders, the constant change in public health conditions and guidelines has meant acclimating to a new level of flexibility. About one-quarter of children between ages 5 and 11 have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
More than 70% of people 12 and older in the United States are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials have warned that the unvaccinated remain most at risk of severe illness or death from omicron.